This is why most Church of Christ folks use matzo crackers and those disposable single cups for communion: you don’t know where the sinner next to you has been (and they don’t know where your sinnin’ rear end has been)!

Which raises an intriguing question for transubstantiationalist Catholics: can the body of Christ transmit Hepatitis-A?

MASSAPEQUA PARK, N.Y. – Health officials say hundreds of people may have been exposed to hepatitis A while receiving communion on Christmas Day at a church on Long Island, N.Y.

The Nassau County Health Department said Monday it will offer vaccines this week to anyone who received communion at the church Dec. 25. A church spokesman told Newsday that the investigation was ongoing and that he could not identify who might have transmitted the virus.

Symptoms may include fever, fatigue, poor appetite, nausea, stomach pain, dark-colored urine and jaundice. The disease is rarely fatal and most people recover in a few weeks without any complications.

I’d also encourage Christians in Long Island to hold off on greeting each other with a holy kiss for a while…